Commercial
There is no doubt that the whaling industry will resume the harvest of the California gray whale once it has recovered. This is indeed unfortunate as the species is neither abundant nor large enough to provide much profit. Certainly history will repeat itself and the grand spectacle of the California gray whale migration will require another thirty or more years to repeat itself. The future status of the California gray whale may not necessarily have the same fortunate outcome, as the whaling industry at the present time is much more thorough. Furthermore, competition between the various whaling nations makes adjustment of regulations slow and cumbersome—much too slow for a species so limited in numbers and so accessible to complete extermination.
The bone pile at the Moss Landing, Calif., whaling shore station, photographed 1919. Courtesy San Francisco Maritime Museum Association.
Already the Russians have expressed proprietary interest because they control the summer feeding grounds. Likewise, with the same reasoning, the Mexicans control the breeding waters. It would appear that the American interests, limited to two small shore stations at San Francisco, must be content to secure those whales which will escape the efficient Russian and Japanese fleets which could, at the most opportune moment, secure the species before the beginning of the long migration. At any rate, the species can only serve as an extra species in areas where whaling is already marginal because of limited stocks. It is hoped that eventually the whaling interest will remove the gray whale from whaling, leaving it as a living memorial to whaling.
Natural Population Controls
Conservationists should remember that nature has wisely designed each species of plant and animal with a built-in margin of safety; namely, a surplus of young which will repopulate the species from periods of extreme adversity. Yet these surpluses must somehow usually be eliminated lest the species overpopulate its habitat and destroy its own sustenance. The controls which limit the population are many and the population existing from year to year is the statistical average of these many controls. Diseases, predators, and other adversities are necessary evils, which are in the final analysis blessings in disguise. Whales, too, have their checks, although we are a long way from knowing their relative importance.
Perhaps the most critical moment in the life of the whale is birth, because the newborn whale must surface immediately or suffocate. Any abnormality in the birth process or weakness on the part of the infant may cause its loss. Inasmuch as a whale calves only every other year, the loss of a baby is serious, and especially so because a whale produces but a single calf. Less than one per cent of whale births are twins which is about the same frequency as for humans. A careful examination of the shores around the breeding lagoons reveals that a few babies are lost at birth.